Study on mechanical behavior and microstructure evolution of Al-Mg-Li alloy during electropulsing assisted uniaxial tensile

The mechanical behavior and microstructure evolution of Al-Mg-Li alloys under the effect of electric current was investigated using an electropulsing-assisted uniaxial tensile (EAUT) test combined with microstructure observations. It was found that the localized Joule heating-induced microscale high temperature at the grain boundaries in the necking zone significantly accelerated the grain boundary weakening when necking occurred, which resulted in rapid intergranular fracture and relevant decrease in elongation. Electropulsing induced continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX) in the both side layers and the discontinuous dynamic recrystallization (DDRX) in the intermediate layers of the Al-Mg-Li sheet during EAUT testing at 460 °C and higher, promoting the formation of newly near-equiaxed recrystallized grains and weakening of β-fiber texture components. For the conventional high temperature tensile test, only a small amount of recrystallized grains formed along the grain boundaries of the coarse parent grains under the control of DDRX. The occurrence of CDRX during EAUT was substantially attributed to the promoted effect of electropulsing on dislocation glide and climb, which resulted from the combined effect of microscale localized Joule heating around dislocations and the electro-induced enhancement effect on vacancy diffusion.